This Week....My Creative Scrapbook

I'm so excited to be guest designing again for My Creative Scrapbook this month!  The April Kits are JAM PACKED with goodness!

I got to work with the April Main Kit, which features the Carpe Diem collection from Simple Stories.  Check out my instagram feed for a IG hop today with projects from other designers using this months kits!

I was inspired by the days of the week circles on one of the pieces of patterned paper.   So for a week (or two)  I took some photos of our daily activities and wrote a bit about what we do each day.

I printed my photos really small and layered them with some of the chipboard frames from the collection.

I splattered some black ink and just added little blocks of cardstock where I wrote my journaling.  A pretty simple page, really!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out IG for more projects!

Stay scrappy my friends!

Baby Buntings...

One of my favorite lullabyes to sing to the kiddos when they were babies was "Bye, Baby Bunting".  They still like to hear it every now and again!  Grandma came for a visit and we played "baby" and wrapped them up in "buntings".  Even though I just recently had a few years of practice doing "buntings", my mother is STILL better at it than I am!  :)

I haven't been using very many single photos on my layouts lately, so when I saw this sketch at Scrapfriends, I decided to give it a go with this photo.

I added a white wash and some "clay" mist splatters on the background, and then added a few splatters of some Heidi Swapp color shine in Coral, too.  I'm trying to use up my embellishments with this Crate Paper Close Knit line because I always run out of papers before embellies!  There are the stitched pieces, buttons, chipboard, and more!

I created a small banner with the chipboard pieces and just added some twine to the top.

I loved the cluster of frames in the sketch, so I used some chipboard ones to frame some fun brads from this collection, too.

Can't believe that it is almost the end of the month already!  But that just means it's closer to summer!  But I do like being "snowed" in so that I can spend more time scrapping!

Stay scrappy (and warm!) my friends!

Dia De Los Muertos...Glitz Designs

I have always been so captivated by the decorative skulls of "The Day of the Dead" (which is in connection with All Saints Day and All Souls Day).  I love how beautiful images and shapes like flowers, leaves, hearts, and stars are in juxtaposition with something gloomy like death and skulls.  But I also love the thought of celebrating those that have died.

I decided to make a few simple decor pieces and try my hand at decorating some skulls!

I hand drew two skulls and then cut them out of some patterned papers (all papers are Glitz Designs). I then cut some different shapes out of patterned papers and decorated my skulls with them.

I think the most important finishing touch is outlining everything with a black pen.  To add a bit more interest, I added some glossy accents to the eyes and teeth.

I put my skulls in some frames and displayed them on a tabletop!  :)

Fancy Pants Country Boutique for My S&M

For the month of Sept, us DT girls at My Scraps & More got to work with the unique Fancy Pants "Country Boutique" line.  I have to say that it isn't something that I would pick up right away, and I was worried about using such a neutral palette.  But after working with it for a bit, I love how the neutral colors really make your photos stand out.

I really wanted to use a landscape photo with these papers.  I thought that the blues and greens would just stand out perfectly against the browns and greys.

I took this shot of Cayuga Lake (in the Finger Lakes of NY) as I traveled there for the first time this summer back in June.  My parents have a cottage on the lake and we spend a lot of time there!

I based my page off of a sketch on the Fancy Pants blog.

This is a rather clean page for me, but I still added my bits of misting and inking, and some wrapped twine.

These are some photos of my brother and my little Ky Guy after they had gotten some buzz cuts by my hubby.  This was Kyler's FIFTH haircut, although the first time he got buzzed! When I thought of buzz cuts, I thought of zig zags and when I thought of zig zags, I thought of chevron!

Under the chevron papers, I layered a whole bunch of banners from the banner die cut sheet, and also a mini file folder that came with the title die cuts.   I wanted to ground my photos a bit more, so I added some black circles, too.

I was holding my paintbrush a different way when splattering my paint this time, and I really like how it landed on the page.  I really want to experiment more with getting paint splatters just right!

Lastly, with the great die cut banner sheet, I just had to make an actual banner.  But because I used some on my previous layout, I only had a few left, and had to think of a creative way to put my letters on three pennants.  It was either a 3 letter word, a 6 letter word, or a 3 word phrase.  I decided on FA MI LY.

 I bought this cheap frame at Wal Mart for $3.  I painted it white a few times, but I love that you can still see the pattern on it a bit. Behind the banner I simply wrapped a piece of the black patterned paper from this line with some twine and placed it in the frame, removing the glass.

I made some accordian flowers to mount my letters on, and the other pennants got some fussy cut hearts that i inked and covered with crackle paint.

The banner was a bit big for the frame, but that was totally fine by me!  I love the natural feel of this with the colors, the white washed frame, and the twine.

I have been a scrappn' fool this month, and think I have done at least 20 pages.  Just finished 4 last night that I have to photograph.  I am hoping to go to an all day crop next Saturday at a local store (which I have never been to).  We will see!

Also, I just sent my registration in today for a 3 day retreat in Ogdensburg, NY!  It's called Crop til You Drop, which I'm sure I will!  WOO HOO!